Dear Editor,
Please permit me space to address the argument of former President, Donald Ramotar, in relation to the current war between Russia and Ukraine. In a recent letter to the press Ramotar posited “… that Russia’s intervention into Ukraine was a result of the failure to resolve the question of Russian security concerns which was being debated since 1999 with the US and the NATO Alliance.” He justifies the Russian war because of the failure of conventional politics and diplomacy. But who should be blamed for that failure? The former President fails to answer this crucial question. May I remind the learned socialist that after the dissolution of the Warsaw Pact Alliance (which bolstered Russian security after the Second World War) former Warsaw pact members, including Poland, Bulgaria, Romania and others, became members of NATO through “conventional politics and diplomacy”, not war. NATO, by skillful and peaceful diplomacy was able to boost its membership and security position.
It is understandable that Russia felt insecure with the collapse of the Warsaw Alliance and its former members joining NATO. My question is why Russia didn’t continue to pursue diplomacy to strengthen its own security. Diplomacy, as a strategy, was initiated by former President, Mikhail Gorbachev, who proposed that the former Soviet Union join NATO. “In 1991, Boris Yeltsin, the first President of the new Russian state, wrote to NATO, reiterating Gorbachev’s proposal. He repeated calls made by former Warsaw Pact countries like Hungary to join the Western alliance, and called NATO membership a “long- term political aim” of Russia.” (Madeline Roache, The Times April 4, 2019).
It was the coming of Putin that witnessed the failure of Russian diplomacy. As a result of that failure, Putin has resorted to brute force to extend Russian territory to include Ukraine and strengthen its security. Vladimir Putin wanted Russia to join NATO but did not want his country to have to go through the usual application process and stand in line “with a lot of countries that don’t matter”, according to George Robertson, a former Secretary-General of the transatlantic alliance. Ramotar noted that the US or Germany, France and other countries have military forces on Russian borders. However, one should not forget that those forces are not on Russian territory, but on NATO members’ territories, which is part of any of NATO’s security arrangements. NATO is a defensive alliance; its members do not seek war of aggression as a means of bolstering its security, as Russia is clearly doing.
Sincerely,
Dhanraj Bhagwandin
